Arctic news, features and articles
Beyond the Arctic Circle lies a winter wonderland of snow, sea ice, glaciers and polar bears. With Live Science, you can unlock the mysteries of Earth's northernmost region, like the new top predator along the Arctic coast, the discovery of a huge hole in the Arctic, and photos of polar bears playing house. There's captivating and informative content for you in our latest Arctic news, features and articles from Live Science's expert team of writers and editors.
Discover more about the Arctic
Latest about Arctic

Permafrost thaw and 'shrubification' have tipped Alaska's North Slope into a wildfire regime not seen for 3,000 years
By Sascha Pare published
An analysis of peatland soil samples and satellite images has found that wildfires on Alaska's North Slope are more frequent and severe now than they were at any point over the past 3,000 years.

Critical moment when El Niño started to erode Russia's Arctic sea ice discovered
By Skyler Ware published
Scientists discover a tipping point that took place in 2000, where El Niño’s effect on sea ice loss in Siberia was amplified.

Huge ice dome in Greenland vanished 7,000 years ago — melting at temperatures we're racing toward today
By Skyler Ware published
Scientists drilled to the bottom of Greenland's 1,600-foot deep Prudhoe Dome and found it disappeared in the early Holocene, when temperatures were close to what we're predicted to reach by the end of the century.

Arctic 'methane bomb' may not explode as permafrost thaws, new study suggests
By Nathaniel Scharping, Eos.org published
Methanotrophs, including those that capture methane from the air, seem to outcompete methanogens in dry environments, a new study shows.

Scientists 'reawaken' ancient microbes from permafrost — and discover they start churning out CO2 soon after
By Sascha Pare published
Researchers incubated permafrost samples from Alaska at different temperatures and found that microbes from the last ice age can reactivate and resume breaking down carbon.

'It was so unexpected': 90 billion liters of meltwater punched its way through Greenland ice sheet in never-before-seen melting event
By Ben Turner published
A previously-undetected flood over Greenland's ice sheet has confounded model predictions about how the region's meltwater should leak.

New technologies are helping to regrow Arctic sea ice
By Matilda Hay, Grist published
But should we use them?

Scientists record never-before-seen 'ice quakes' deep inside Greenland's frozen rivers
By Sascha Pare published
Quakes recorded for the first time inside Greenland's biggest frozen river, the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream, suggest this river and others switch between moving jerkily and flowing like honey.

'Ominous milestone for the planet': Arctic Ocean's 1st ice-free day could be just 3 years away, alarming study finds
By Ben Turner published
The Arctic's ice cover could dip below a crucial threshold as soon as 2027, and will do so inevitably in the next 20 years if greenhouse gas emissions continue, scientists warn.
Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.

